Game Review: Hitman: Blood Money

IO Interactive made its mark on the videogame world with the first Hitman game in 2000. The world, especially Europe, loved it, and rightly so. IO has designed a stealth game that, while suffering from some easy-to-notice flaws here and there, boasts some of the most distinguished and well-honed level design in any game of its kind. Perhaps equally important, IO gave birth to a long-lasting, brooding iconic antihero with Agent 47.

With the third game in the series, Hitman: Contracts, IO hit a lull, but the fourth game, Hitman: Blood Money, does several things to improve the series, both from a presentation and a playability perspective.

The results are solid — the new notoriety system functions intelligently, the upgraded currency system encourages players to be pennywise, and the text-sensitive controls and up-close fighting systems make this often very inaccessible stealth game more forgiving. The newly added features don't alter the fundamental experience much beyond Contracts. Fans of the series will notice all the new features in subtle ways, but the gameplay is essentially the same as in the previous games. In other words, IO built a lot of good features around the core play, which was tinkered with and enhanced, but it basically left the fundamental game alone — leaving us with a good, familiar game of Hitman. It's more accessible, looks better and is worth your hard-earned money if you're a patient and obsessive stealth gamer.

the story

The story of Blood Money is more intriguing: Agent 47, the ultimate assassin clone, is being hunted by a rival organization and a hitman, while following a narrative that traces Agent 47's work via a reporter and an inside man bent on tracking him down. The cutscenes reveal crucial information on yours truly, and they exhaustively — and in a real-world manner — explore the political and global issues around cloning. The CG dialog is refreshing and intelligent and doesn't just paint a nice pastiche. The series has always relied on CG cutscenes, which have looked drastically different than the actual gameplay until now. IO's rebuilt game engine features better lighting techniques and character models and the work shows up well on all systems, especially the PC and Xbox 360 versions, which appear unhindered by technical limitations.

controls, levels and accessibility

The most dramatic changes in Blood Money revolve around Hitman's actions and the systems around those actions. The first level is essentially an up-to-date training level, which narrates your actions through a real-world level. The next things you'll notice are contact-sensitive controls, more kinds of control and added Agent 47 nimbleness. Using a three-button system that appears on-screen, you'll find that doorknobs, items, secret stashes in drawers and guns all are contact-sensitive. When you run by a useable object the right button lights up in the corner of your screen. This feature makes controlling Hitman a little more natural without being too obvious. The only wonky control glitch occurs when you climb out windows — it's a little sticky and can be confusing in a quick situation.